The 11-times Grand Slam winner and the current world number one tennis star Novak Djokovic has added another feather in his crown last night when he won his second Madrid open and the 29th Masters title overall, beating the defending champion Andy Murray in three-set affair in Madrid. The 28-years old Serb displayed some brilliant tennis and clinched the title in 126 minutes with a score line of 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
This title triumph has some other significances too as it was the 29th Masters title win for the Belgrade-born ace tennis player and helped him to surpass Rafael Nadal, who has 28th Masters title under his name. Not only that, Djokovic’s Madrid Open victory is his 64th career title and puts him to the same bracket with two legends of the game –Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras, who had the same number of career title under their belt.
Achieving this incredible landmark, Djokovic said to the official ATP website and we are quoting,” It’s obviously very flattering to be alongside such legends of the sport, tennis players that I was looking up to, especially Pete Sampras. When I was growing up he was ruling the tennis world.”
Later, the current Wimbledon, US Open and the Australian Open champion added, “It’s an achievement that I’m very proud of. As you said, it’s a motivation for more. When you get to this particular phase of your career, you need to constantly look for more ways of inspiring and motivating yourself to keep going.”
In the final, Djokovic looked brilliant and dominated from the first game and won the first set by the margin of 6-2. In the second, the Brit showed great character and resolute, and came back in the match, winning the set by 6-3 scoreline.
In the third and decisive set, both the players continued to show their impressive display and played some brilliant baseline tennis. The affair between world’s two best tennis players produced some mesmerizing rallies and entertained the spectators with some powerful winners. After saving seven break points in the thrilling final game, Djokovic finally managed to convert his third match point when Murray sent a forehand into the net and won the decisive set by 6-3 scoreline. Djokovic hit total 25-winners during the match and also did same numbers of unforced errors, whereas on the hand, Murray played total 10 aces in this more than 2 hours long battle.
With this victory, Djokovic kept his dominance over Murray, as it was his 12th victory in the last 13 meetings and 23-9 over all against the British marquee tennis player. The Serb has won 15 now matches consecutively against the top-10 ATP ranked tennis players and lost only two sets in the meantime. Not only that, this victory in Madrid Open after 5 years helped Djokovic to win his fifth title this year, including the Australian Open where he beat the same opponent in the final.
Despite his disappointing loss in the final, Murray was happy about his own game and the way he played in Madrid as clay court is not his strong suit. The Scot said to BBC, “When you play against the best players, you are probably not going to win every single time. But you want to make the matches extremely difficult for them — physically and mentally — so it’s not comfortable. So I think at least I did that, but unfortunately didn’t get the win.It’s been a positive week for me this week overal. A few years ago I wouldn’t have thought I’d be winning against Rafa and then pushing Novak this close on a clay court.”
Murray also praised Djokovic whole heartedly and said he has enjoyed playing against him, “That’s why he’s No. 1 just now. He fought very hard in that game and served well when he was a bit nervous. At the end he came up with some big serves and got himself some free points and did well.”
This triumph in the clay court will give Djokovic a huge boost before the French Open, where he lost in the final last two times and have not got his hands on the trophy for once in his illustrious career. But before taking part in the French Open, Djokovic will take part in the Rome Open which will also be played on the clay court.
